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"14K For A Day"

Re: "14K For A Day" (August 24, 2010!)

From BlackLightRadio's Gene Savage:

The K-Crew's final hour at 11pm (central) tonight 8/23/10, followed by Rod Tucker from March of '85, & Beaver Cleaver from October of '84. Songs you didn't hear anywhere else (except perhaps MTV) and interviews with some of the K-Crew starting tonight and running for 27 hours as http://BlackLightRadio.com/ becomes 14K For A Day Tuesday!

(Ps-s-t! Want a CD of the sweepers and promos from 14K & 92K that we'll be featuring during the tribute?

$10 (that INCLUDES postage) gets you a CD mailed to you when you send the money via PayPal to [email protected]!

It includes the "all killer / no filler" bottom of the hour sweeps, a promo for Bo Chase's morning show, Dave Michaels and friends wishing you a happy 1984, and so many more! (Like a trip to tour the MTV studio, a 14K sticker winner, and tickets to see Yes in OKC.

All promos & sweeps are remastered by Mel himself from the original master production reel, just re-discovered this year.)

Love KELI-AM 1430 during any of its lifetime? You MUST go look at http://Facebook.com/KELIRadioTulsa/ for images of classic bumper stickers, nearly 10 years of weekly music lists, and video of KELI's last moments as a top 40 radio station. The fan page is run by former KELI staff, so you know it's good!
 
Listening now to blacklight "14 Kay for a day."

Love what you've done by adding in retrospect interviews with former staffers.

Sounds great.
 
Thanks! That's been one of those "need to get to" things for years, and I suppose you could say Mel pushed me into gear on getting the interviews done when he mentioned this was the 25th anniversary of 14K's demise.

...That, and him finding that 14K master reel. Such cool stuff! Many of them promos I hadn't even heard (or don't remember) but absolutely sound like what they did 24/7/365 for two solid years.

I talked to about seven of the K-Crew this year and hope to catch more of them on tape for next year. What you're hearing on the air is a tiny, tiny portion of what each of them said; I plan to expand the interview segments next year, and am also planning to pass the full interviews onto the caretakers of the KELI Facebook fan page so they can archive them on the site.

I took a few photos this year of the old 14K building on Skelly that's now home to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. I suspect they thought I was a terrorist scoping out the place. :D

I gotta get my $10 to Mel for that CD of sweepers & promos!
 
Thanks for putting this tribute together Gene, it's fun to listen to, especially the dance mixes. It would be fun to take the best parts of the interviews and put together a history of 14-K/92-K, similar to the one KWGS is doing for KAKC.

I wish I could have heard and taped more of 14-K/92-K but I was going to college at UCO in Edmond at the time and living on a shoestring budget with just enough money from my parents for food and gas.

And the hits from 83-85 sound a lot fresher and more creative to my ears than the autotuned, pro-tooled and then compressed to hell hits on modern CHR radio.
 
Billy,

Thank you so much! This is always such hard work but always so much fun at the same time. I have a feeling I'll sleep VERY well tonight. ;)

If I thought there was a broadcast outlet that would be interested in such a program, I'd love to see it happen, even happily turn the elements over to someone else to assemble. I can't WAIT to hear the KAKC feature on KWGS... you just know that's going to be amazing radio.

Somebody needs to put together a tribute to the ENTIRE history of KELI, too... I'm focusing on a two year "return to former glory," while there were a couple of decade's worth of radio history made out at the Tulsa fairgrounds in the Rotorama. Thankfully the Facebook tribute page and http://www.tulsatvmemories.com have lots of pics and history, but the audio from the 60s & 70s is M.I.A. I was too young to record it (and too young to realize what was going on, part of why I missed taping the early days of 14K; it was always going to be there) and I don't know who if anybody had airchecks from KELI when they battled against KAKC.

What I'm doing each year, I can't imagine a broadcast station doing. Of course I'd love to see it happen, even bringing back the original jocks for the day (voicetracked from across the country for much of it I suspect) but I doubt you could get a focus group to agree to it.

I'm ALSO with you on the sound of the 80s hits vs. today. There are contemporary songs that remind me of some of the 80s hits, but it's just not the same.

In our regular programming I've worked very hard to get the LEAST compressed copies of the hits, and the compression I add is designed to be reminiscent of 80s top-40 radio processing but in reality is far, far more gentle. Of course the airchecks were originally processed and then are being run through my processing so they're more squashed than the original station, but hopefully the music & the DJs make up for it.

I'm going to have to post a "thank you" list somewhere: Facebook, on the webpage itself, somewhere... so many people came together to make it happen this year, which is part of why this has been so much bigger than previous years. Mel has been a HUGE help, but so have YOU Billy, providing airchecks, as has Myke Carter (who has remastered many of my airchecks for this year's tribute), the K-Crew (Mel, Randy, Dave, Tom, Duncan, Brian, & Kelley) who put up with all of my questions, Brian & Tim who have worked so hard on the Facebook KELI tribute page, Mel & Dave AGAIN for discovering and resurrecting an original production tape... the list goes on and on.

It's really the past work of the incredible staff of 14K & 92K (including an INCREDIBLE support staff behind the scenes) that makes this tradition so much fun... I'm just riding the K-Crew's coat-tails 25 years later! 8)
 
A KELi history would be interesting, how the station survived being the #2 Top 40 for years while KAKC dominated. Then in the mid 70's KELi "tightened up" and wound up beating and outliving KAKC by three more years.

The earliest KELi aircheck I've heard was from 1968 on reelradio.com. http://www.reelradio.com/gifts/jskeli112668.html#jskeli112668
They were trying to get the adults to listen by running full service MOR (Stevie & Eydie!) during the morning. ???

If anyone here has any 70's "Rock of Tulsa" satellite building era airchecks I'd LOVE to hear them. I have just a few bits and pieces from my high school days.

It was fun to hear 14-4/92-K DJ's use the slogan "The New Rock Of Tulsa".. maybe that was in reference to the 70's era?
 
I GUARANTEE it was a reference to KELI being "The Rock Of Tulsa" in its glory days; Mel said it himself wen I interviewed him!

(Fun fact: KELI turned 50 while Mel, Dave & Bo were at the helm. There's a cute newspaper from the time talking about them NOT making a big deal about it on the air since they were such a "young" targeted station.)

My mom always preferred KELI in the late 50s (I can't remember when they left the KTUL calls behind... or the 1400 frequency, for that matter...) because she said if you heard a siren go by she would turn on KELI and 9 times out of 10 in their next break they'd tell you what was going on.

I don't know if Tulsa's gotten to big for that, radio has gotten too automated, or if focus groups say they don't want the "clutter"... either way, when I hear a siren, I think back to my mom's story and which there was a station today I could turn to for that kind of moment-by-moment, blow-by-blow coverage of the city.

I'll second your request for 70s-era KELI airchecks!
 
From what I've heard over the years, the KELi calls date around 60-62 when new owners bought KTUL.

And another thing while listening to this flashback: 14-K/92-K didn't play that many R&B crossovers like The Gap Band, Teena Marie, Mtume, Klymaxx, Shannon, New Edition, etc. That's something that KJ-103 in OKC were dabbling in. Was this Mel/Dave's decision or an consultants?

The only black artists I heard sofar were Michael Jackson, Prince and all their spin-offs. And Hip-Hop was still very "underground" in Tulsa and OKC.
 
The lack of "black" artists is due more to when I was taping rather than a general station principle.

Additionally, anything you hear was the result of Mel, Dave, Bo, or somebody in the building... there were NO consultants for 14K (which makes it all the more amazing to me).

I remember The Gap Band's "Party Train," Teena Marie's "Lovergirl," Shannon's "Let The Music Play," and New Edition's "Cool It Now" all airing on 14K.

There DID seem to be a shift over the two years from quirky electronic alternative and dance to more of a rock focus as the end approached. I don't know that it was a conscious decision as much as perhaps Mel & Dave following where they felt the audience was going.

Dave has told me in the past that he believes that if 14K had stayed on the air, it would have evolved over time into a more traditional top 40.

I don't remember ANY hip hop on 14K, no. :) No JJ Fad, no Run DMC... although, now that I think about it... it is POSSIBLE that they MIGHT have played Salt n Peppa's "Push It" early on... I certainly heard it somewhere on the radio! My memory's unclear on that one.
 
The original "Rock Of Tulsa" was 970 KAKC. You can see the KHJ-knock off/ Drake station imaging at http://tulsatvmemories.com/tulradio.html

KELI claimed to be the "New Rock of Tulsa" in the later days of the station.

Loved the Don Steele aircheck. Been a long time since something new from Tulsa went up on Reel Radio.

Early KELI slugged it out against KAKC for years. KELI as 5 kW day/directional night on 1430 actually had a better signal over the market than KAKC. KAKC's old night signal used to drop out on some parts of Peoria (the restless-ribbon).

That KELI could stay almost head to head with a Drake consulted station was quite a tribute to the Kelly family. (They must have been prolific breeders, Don, Pete, Gary, Dean, and all the other kids).
 
I didn't know Mel & Dave programmed 14-K/92-K from scratch.. and that they got a good following with the limited signals they had is fascinating. Was Z-104 done the same way?

It was rare to hear rap on Oklahoma Radio back in 83-5. I remember only a few novelties like "Jam On It", The Jonzun Crew's "Space Cowboy" or "Rappin Duke" getting played on KJ-103. I remember there was a late night rap/R&B show on KGOU back in 1984-5.. and that's it. And KAEZ wouldn't touch rap either, but they were a screwed up station anyway.

It wasn't until Run DMC and The Beastie Boys broke through on MTV around 1986-7 that any CHR stations started playing rap on a regular basis. Had 14-K/92-K stuck around a few more years they probably would have played them. I wish Signal Media hadn't pulled the plug on Mel & Dave so quick, did something to improve 92-K's signal, or moved in or bought a higher powered FM station in the Tulsa market.
 
STACKER: I agree the logo looks like a rock, and they were the "Rockin' 97," but did they actually ever use the phrase "The rock of Tulsa?" I remember KELI using the phrase "the rock of Tulsa" because there's a bumper sticker archived at http://tulsatvmemories.com/tulrad2a.html from 1975 that says it.

There's no question that KAKC dominated, and that KAKC rocked harder; KELI fought hard but especially if you look at some of the surveys on the KELI Facebook fan page you'll see they dabbled in some pretty light stuff at times.

...Oh, for one of the Kelley green jackets the DJs used to wear! To see the Rotorama standing again (rumor has it, it's modular and disassembled and stored somewhere for safe keeping. Somebody needs to get that out, find a good place for it, weatherproof it, and start broadcasting from it!)...

BILLY: I can't say for sure if 104.5 had a consultant or not. What I was saw a significant in-house music research department... literally a room with people calling listeners and playing hooks to get their reaction. That callout research ruled what we played.

I can speak with some confidence to the fact that Mel had to answer to at least ONE person at Z104.5, and that not everything you heard on Z104.5 was what Mel thought was best for the station.

You'd never know it to have worked for him there, though. When he was given his marching orders, he'd come back to us and sell it like it was his baby... no matter how much he was holding his nose inside.

I only caught him once not perfectly covering his tracks. When K107 began "7 in a row," Mel said "we won't use their inferior yardstick. We play 40 minute music marathons."

Then the order came down: we are Tulsa's 10 In A Row Station.

You'd have thought God Himself had told Mel to do it. He said, "this is GREAT! We'll beat them at their own game!"

It was only then that I realized perhaps not everything he had to implement on the station was his choice. He won a lot of battles, I think... but not all of them.

Regarding rap on 14K, I too suspect that as time went by they would have played Young MC, Tone Loc, and all the rest. They never got the chance.

As far as Signal Media selling 14K & 92K... at the risk of stepping on some toes, I've come to the conclusion there was one traitor in the building... and Signal Media signed an intent to negotiate without realizing what they had.

I've heard when the head came down to see the station, to talk to the jocks, to interact with the audience, he was overheard saying, "if I'd realized what I had, I NEVER would have sold this place."

It was easy, from a distance, to feed him a six-county survey area that showed them near the bottom when they only reached Tulsa Country and the Tulsa County only survey showed them KILLING their competition. The Tulsa Country only survey never reached his desk.

It was easy, from a distance, to say the station wasn't able to sell advertising when most of your sales reps found it challenging selling ads targeted at their children. As reps who understood the demographics were found, sales were poised to go up... but that never got back to Signal Media.

It was easy, from a distance, to say if the format's successful on AM, it'll be even better on FM... and then watch the audience split in half and declare the stations a failure.

It was easy, from a distance, to see the "wisdom" of eliminating the expense of jocks on the "failing" AM and putting it on satellite, thus further driving the station's numbers down and making a sale even easier to justify.

As a listener, I"m still pretty bitter at what appears to have taken place to get those stations out of the hands of Signal Media. It wouldn't be that much later, after the sale was over and done, that an angry owner would offer to pay for Arbitron books on the air, which succeeded in getting the KELI call letters effectively banned from the Tulsa market forever... Arbitron said they would NEVER rate the KELI call letters in Tulsa again.

That's like getting rid of the KVOO call letters on 1170, or the KAKC calls on 970, or... oh, wait a minute... nevermind...

What is even crazy-er-making for this ex-14K listener is knowing that at the time 92.1 had 3 KW from 41st & 169; now they have 25 KW from the highest point in Tulsa county. 1430 had 5 KW; now they have 25 KW (daytime).

With that extra coverage, would they have been able to prove their case? It might have made it tougher to show "bad" ratings books, but the sales issues might have been the same and provided enough ammunition that the deal might have still gone down exactly as it did.

BTW, the owner was only in Dallas as I remember... not that far away... and he didn't know what he had and didn't understand the value of the property, even though he was looking through multiple reports from the local stations.

A near-by owner, not responsible to stock holders... and he missed it.

Guess how much I love boards of directors in other time zones making decisions for our local stations? :mad:
 
NightAire, you are correct and I was wrong. KELI used the Rock of Tulsa, not KAKC.

As for the rest of your post, well I can't comment. You see, I tend to sweat when I read. Must. Keep. It. Short. See Spot, Dick, Jane and that kind of stuff.

Well, back to training the seals.
 
STACKER: If you sweat when you read, you are likely get dehydrated reading my posts! Sorry...

Good luck with the seals.
 
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